Devol: the unreleased album Lil Wayne wrote in prison
You don’t have to be a huge fan of Lil Wayne to know that the rapper has spent some time in jail. The world-famous rapper, considered one of the best of his generation, famously spent some time – eight months, to be exact – locked up in Rikers Island in 2010. The charge, which dates back to 2007, was attempted criminal possession of a weapon. The incident itself was a handgun, and it was found on his tour bus.
And Lil Wayne kept himself busy. He released his eighth album, I Am Not a Human Being, when incarcerated; his ninth album, Tha Carter IV, was released mere months after he was released. It was a massive hit, scoring nearly a million units sold across the US within its first week alone. Not bad at all!
But that’s not all the rapper got up to while locked away. In an interview with MTV, the MC revealed that he recorded tracks for an album during his time in Rikers; a collection of love songs, no less.
“I was… recording an album at the same time called ‘Devol,’ spelt D-E-V-O-L, ’cause that’s ‘loved’ spelt backwards,” Lil Wayne said in an online clip. “And it’s my version of love songs. And what I mean by my version of love songs is they’re not saying I love you.”
Allegedly an album’s worth of love songs, it has still not seen the light of day. Perhaps that’s because Lil Wayne, assumedly, hasn’t quite had the time. In 2013, Lil Wayne released I Am Not a Human Being II, which fused traditional hip-hop with a more rock-facing sound for a debut that immediately shot to number two on the Billboard 200.
Two years later, the rapper self-released several mixtapes such as 2015’s No Ceilings 2. The long-awaited Tha Carter V came out in 2018, which was another No.1 album he could add to his collection.
Born in 1982, Lil Wayne is widely considered one of the most influential – and, as his time in prison proves, definitely most prolific – figures in modern hip-hop. A teenage prodigy, his legacy extends beyond just his albums, of which there are a near-phenomenal fourteen, but also his prowess in recognising and mentoring the next generation of hip-hop too.
Under his Young Money Entertainment label – of which he is a founder – he played a crucial role in launching the trajectories of musicians such as Drake and Nicki Minaj, two of the definitive hip-hop artists of the 21st century.
And with the release of the latest in his signature Carter series in June 2025 – Tha Carter VI – it’s clear Lil Wayne is showing no signs of slowing down. A tremendous commitment to music making, considering he’s got enough trophies, awards, and accolades to rival the biggest names not just in hip-hop, but in the history of music.
This includes – but is by no means limited to – several Grammy Awards, including for Best Rap Album for Tha Carter III, numerous BET Hip Hop Awards, and dozens of Billboard Hot 100 entries. We can only ponder what both the critics and the public would have made of the mysterious Devol album.